Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the uptake of perinatal mental health services among ethnic minority communities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service is committed to addressing unwarranted variation and health inequalities and promoting equality, including for Perinatal Mental Health services. This includes supporting services to ensure appropriate access for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, to ensure that women from all backgrounds who need specialist Perinatal Mental Health support receive it.
NHS England’s Perinatal Mental Health programme is taking steps to ensure: training and development are available to ensure the workforce is culturally competent, diverse and representative of communities; equalities ambitions are embedded into strategic plans and governance arrangements; coproduction is embedded in service design, development and governance structures; regions and local health systems are supported to develop and achieve equality ambitions for their populations; data is available to understand trends in inequality in access, experience and outcomes to specialist Perinatal Mental Health services; third sector groups and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors are included to support groups at risk of health inequalities.
In addition, NHS England published its first Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy in October 2020, laying out plans for addressing inequalities in access, experience and outcomes in mental health care.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will increase the number of grant schemes aimed at capacity building for third sector organisations.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This government is providing significant investment and support to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations. For example, in March we announced a package of over £100 million to support charities and community organisations in England with cost of living pressures, and over this spending review period we are investing over £500 million in youth services in England.
Alongside this we are also providing targeted support that will build capacity across the VCSE sector. For example, we are delivering one-to-one business support and peer learning for early stage social enterprises in disadvantaged areas through the £4.1 million Social Enterprise Boost Fund. Similarly, the £900,000 VCSE Contract Readiness Programme is boosting the capacity of VCSE organisations in England to better compete for government contracts.
In addition, we recently announced further support for the youth sector. We have allocated £250,000 through the Local Youth Partnerships Fund to support the set up of additional local youth partnerships to boost the range, quality, accountability and sustainability of frontline services for young people through greater local coordination and cooperation. We are also providing core funding for 8 regional youth work units in England to improve their practices and ensure a consistent minimum level of regional leadership to develop and support the delivery of youth services. Finally, in order to further build the youth sector capacity, we have also announced £800,000 of new funding to provide bursaries for 500 people who would otherwise be unable to afford to undertake youth work qualifications. This builds on over 2,000 bursaries funded to date.
The department remains in regular dialogue with key VCSE sector stakeholders to monitor the health of the sector and to identify shared priorities.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures exist to support effective suicide (1) surveillance, and (2) prevention.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National near Real Time Suspected Suicide Surveillance system will be live by the end of 2023. Its reports will act as an early warning system for indications of change in suicides through analysis of data on suspected suicides.
Everyone has a role to play in suicide prevention and the Government published its new five-year, cross-Government and cross-sector suicide prevention strategy for England on 11 September 2023. The content of the strategy was informed by data, evidence, and engagement with stakeholders, including people with lived experience, and by the mental health and wellbeing plan call for evidence conducted in 2022.
The Strategy is a call for action for national and local government, the health service, and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, employers, and individuals to tackle suicide. It sets out over 100 actions from across a wide range of organisations to support our ambitions for suicide prevention.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department plans to allocate to the roll out of the national cross-government strategy on preventing suicide.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We recently launched our Suicide Prevention Grant Fund, which makes £10 million available over the next two years to support suicide prevention activities delivered in England by voluntary, community or social enterprise organisations.
The fund will help non-profit organisations in meeting the increased demand seen in recent years and assist a range of diverse and innovative activity that can prevent suicides, both at a national and community level. It will especially support those organisations working with groups of concern identified in the new suicide prevention strategy for England.
Wider investment includes £57 million being spent on suicide prevention and suicide bereavement services in all local areas to March 2024 via the NHS Long Term Plan and the £150 million capital investment being made available to improve mental health urgent and emergency care pathways.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Big Night In Fund.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives. The department also conducts post-event assurance and evaluation of the outcomes achieved. The evaluation for the Big Night Infund can be accessed here. This grant was evaluated as part of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise COVID-19 Emergency Funding Package.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department have taken to steps to support people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the fashion industry with (a) the cost of sending samples and (b) other costs associated with running a small business.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The textiles and fashion industry plays an important role in the UK’s social and cultural heritage, and is a major driver of economic growth - with UK designers and manufacturers exporting around the world. Recognising this contribution, HM Treasury has named the creative industries, including fashion, as one of the top five priority growth sectors - underscored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) recent Sector Vision, which sets out ambitious growth targets.
In the sector vision and elsewhere, DCMS has a number of initiatives that aim to improve access to the creative and fashion industries for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Creative Careers Programme has been relaunched with £1 million HM Government funding (22/23-24/25). Aimed at young people aged 11-18 from underrepresented backgrounds, the Creative Careers Programme is targeting 77 priority areas across England. DCMS also engages with our government-appointed Creative Industries Disability and Access Ambassadors who are working on increasing access to the creative industries for those with disabilities.
The government is supporting UK businesses with running costs through the Recovery Loan Scheme, designed to support access to finance for UK businesses as they look to invest and grow. Businesses can use the finance for any legitimate business purpose – including managing cashflow, investment and growth. Additionally, Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Hubs can also be a source of free advice and finance. This is in addition to the Energy Bills Discount Scheme; the increased Employment Allowance of £5,000, which takes the smallest 40% of businesses out of paying any National Insurance at all; and setting the Annual Investment Allowance at £1 million permanently. To support businesses with exporting goods (including samples) the Government's Export Support Service (ESS) provides guidance and advice in response to queries about exporting and ATA Carnets.
As part of the Creative Industries Sector Vision, the government announced £2 million funding to support London Fashion Week over the next two years - this will go towards supporting emerging designer talent and increasing access to the sector.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Key Fund - Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund 2021.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives. A full impact report for the ‘Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund - Social Investment Fund’ is expected in 2024, however an interim impact summary in 2020 demonstrated that the fund had supported 26 businesses across six different impact themes, within 10 of the 11 Northern Local Enterprise Partnerships, and leveraged £600,000 in non-governmental funding.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to Government grants statistics 2020 to 2021, published on 31 March 2022, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the VCS Emergency Partnership Grant.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The department sets objectives for grant funding when designing the grant scheme and allocates funding in accordance with those objectives. The department also conducts post-event assurance and evaluation of the outcomes achieved.
The evaluation for the VCS Emergency Partnership Grant can be accessed here. This grant was evaluated as part of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise COVID-19 Emergency Funding Package.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to continue the local funding for suicide prevention which was previously allocated through the NHS Long Term Plan 2019.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing £57 million in suicide prevention by March 2024 through the NHS Long Term Plan. Through this, all areas of the country are seeing investment to support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services. Funding beyond 2024/25 is subject to future Spending Reviews, and we will consider further opportunities to build upon this investment for suicide prevention.
On 25 August 2023, the Government launched the Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to support suicide prevention activities delivered in England by voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE) organisations to March 2025. The fund will support non-profit organisations to meet the increased demand seen in recent years and support a range of diverse and innovative activity that can prevent suicides, both at a national and community level.
As the Chancellor announced in the Spring Budget 2023, we will provide an extra £10 million over the next two years to the VCSE sector through a Suicide Prevention VCSE Grant Fund, which will support them to sustain their services, help meet increased demand for support, prevent suicides and stem the flow into crisis services.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 17 July (HL8936), when updated guidance will be available from NHS England; how the "transformation" of adult eating disorder (AED) services will be defined and its effectiveness assessed; and by what date integrated care systems will be expected to have transformed AED services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To support services to plan and implement improvements, NHS England has developed a community mental health roadmap intended to set out the different elements which make up the delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan commitments on community mental health transformation, including eating disorders. A transformed adult eating disorder service is defined as:
- Specialist teams that are able to provide support to a spectrum of severity and different types of eating disorders;
- Able to embed lived experience in service development and delivery;
- Supporting early intervention using models such as First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders (FREED) and not employing body mass index or weight thresholds;
- Working with primary care to provide clear arrangements for medical monitoring;
- Working jointly with children and young people’s services, particularly to support smooth transitions; and
- Able to accept self-referrals and referrals from primary care and voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.
NHS England routinely monitors performance returns from integrated care systems to track progress against these deliverables.
Since April 2021, all integrated care systems have received fair-share funding to transform their adult community mental health services, including eating disorders, with the expectation that all will have transformed adult eating disorder services in place by March 2024.